Critic's review: Shubha Shetty-Saha

The heroine is running towards a train going to Chennai, even though she is running away from Chennai. The urn containing the hero’s grandfather’s ‘precious’ ashes plays hide and seek conveniently. The goons kill everyone around but spare the hero, and most of Tamil Nadu cannot decipher Hindi words like they are the aliens of 'Krrish 3' …so on and so forth. Well, this film is Brand Rohit Shetty so you are expected to leave your brains at home...full review

Once in a while comes a film that manages to make you squirm in your seats from the word go. As soon as Arshad Warsi walks into this movie and starts spouting wisdom about male testosterone and how men have to have enough practice to keep their wives ‘satisfied’, I wanted to run away as far as possible from him, his ilk and this movie. All that could go wrong is wrong in this movie. Seriously. A film which depicts every woman available...full review

Now this was a promising story. An honest bank employee gets framed by his employer and sent to jail and he dies in shock. His wife and son get together with two other people to avenge the humiliation. A plot like this could have been laced with black humour so thick that the audience could sit back and smile in smug satisfaction at the smart lines and clever screenplay. No sir, that’s not the case here though. Instead we get two plus hours...full review

Issaq' is supposedly inspired by Shakespeare’s famous classic tale of the fateful love story of Romeo and Juliet. 'Issaq' (Don’t ask why it is spelt like that. Once you watch the movie, the title would be the least of your concern.) The film first tries establishing the enmity between two families – the Kashyaps and the Mishras, with random shootings and weird goings-on as if it is a private joke, not to be understood by the audience...full review

Once in a while comes a film like this one, which along with shaking your core, also manages to make you grateful for being a humble part of the audience. 'Ship of Theseus' is one such rare film. Three stories set in Mumbai. Each so real that you can feel their breath on your cheek and each raising one question, do changing circumstances change the very fibre of our being? The title, 'Ship of Theseus', is inspired by a Greek philospher’s musing...full review

From the first scene, 'D-Day' takes you firmly into its grip and holds you tight. An interesting story of a dreaded terrorist (Iqbal Seth) who’s safely ensconced in Karachi, Pakistan, is desperately wanted by India. The RAW chief, Ashwani Rao (Nassar) plots a kidnap plan with the help of Wali Khan (Irrfan), a RAW agent based in Pakistan, Rudra Pratap Singh (Arjun Rampal), an army man-turned-agent, and two other agents, Zoya Rehman...full review

It is an interesting story. It would be a gripping script. The flying Sikh has gone through enough adventure in his life to make for an interesting screenplay. The 13 important years of his life from 1947 to 1960, where he goes through this marvelous journey of being a 12-year-old forced to flee Pakistan after his parents are killed in a riot during Partition, to a rogue taken up to violence to a respected army soldier to being an extraordinary sportsman...full review

Vikramaditya Motwane has painted this film in West Bengal and Dalhousie and set it in the ’50s era. Yes, I used the word painted because this film is more than just a film. It is more like one of those beautiful paintings that you get mesmerised by when you come across them in old palaces or museums. Those sublime paintings where the detailing is so painstakingly crafted that they almost transport you to the era that it was painted in...full review

There is this unique energy in Aanand L Rai’s films, the earlier one being 'Tanu Weds Manu' and now 'Raanjhanaa'. Colourful and vibrant, but laidback and subtle. It was Kanpur in 'Tanu Weds Manu' and in 'Raanjhanaa', Varanasi gets lucky. In this film, Varanasi is captured beautifully. But interestingly, it is the backdrop to the characters and never the ‘please look at my landscapes and get awestruck’ kind of way (cinematography by Natarajan Subramaniam...full review

One of the characters in this film says that he is tired of eating Maggie all the time. Right. So are we. Two-minute noodle love stories are easy to make, easy to watch and yes, easy to forget. And fortunately Ayan Mukerji’s 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani' is not the two-minute variety. On the contrary, it is a delicacy, which requires patience, passion and it comes with unusual flavours. Naina Talwar (Deepika Padukone) is a nerd, who on a chance meeting...full review

Bollywood more or less first explored Paris through Shakti Samantha’s boisterously fun film, An Evening in Paris. The film went on to become a huge hit, because apart from other credible factors, the film was lapped up by the audience of that time which got an opportunity to get familiar with the nooks and crannies of Paris, the capital of romance. But that was the age of innocence of 1967 and this is 2013, when Cannes (Paris’ neighbour)...full review

The movie starts promisingly as Aarya (Prithviraj Sukumaran) talks about the dirty “collection business” that he and his family members are indulging in. The business brings in loads of money, wads of notes being shuffled around, stocked in suitcases and generally tossed around. But surprisingly, the womenfolk of the house aren’t even aware of the moolah that is brought in and stacked regularly in the very house that they live in...full review

At the outset, 'Gippi' promises to be a coming of age film, dealing with the issues of a teenager. Gurpreet Kaur (Riya Vij) lives with her mother (Divya Dutta) and brother Booboo (Arbaz Kadwani). Life seems idyllic as Gippi dances to Shammi Kapoor tunes and her mother indulges her with new clothes and pakodas. But Gippi is overweight, clumsy and bullied by a super talented girl Shamira (Jayati Modi) in the school. Good enough. But apart from...full review

Yes, there are going to be innumerable comparisons with Hollywood zombie films. Bollywood’s second desi zombie film (Luke Kenny’s forgettable 'Rise of the Zombie' beat it by just one month) comes with a lot of apprehension from zombie film fans. But thankfully unconcerned, 'Go Goa Gone' scores because it deftly marries the desi humour with this concept borrowed from the west. Two friends Hardik (Kunal Khemu) and Luv (Vir Das) are living...full review

Conversations are the flavour of Bollywood's season. Last month we had Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, a while before that it was an independent flick, Good Night Good Morning and this week it is London Paris New York. The idea is to get the audience hooked on to the conversation and the resulting chemistry between two protoganists. Great idea, only if the scriptwriter and the dialogue-writer manage to produce lines scintillating enough to hold the interest and curiosity...full review

It's a sweet love story. A little too sweet perhaps. But handled impressively well, considering it is Mandeep Kumar's debut direction. Viren (Ritesh Deshmukh), is a rickshaw driver in Haryana. Minnie (Genelia) is from a rich family and she wants to escape from getting married to a no-gooder, so she forcibly gets herself kidnapped by hapless Viren. They in turn end up getting kidnapped by kidnapped by someone else. Ritesh doesn't suit the role of a Haryanvi...full review

Sid (R Madhavan) is freshly divorced and is now into the profession of breaking marriages when it becomes too much to bear for their clients. Sonali (Bipasha Basu) is his partner in the good deed. However, Sid for his own selfish interests uses Sonali and some wily ways to break the marriage of Mark (Milind Soman) and Maggie (Dipannita Sharma). This brings a rift between Sid and Sonali. A hatke love story this could have been. A fun, breezy comedy...full review

If last week Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu was all that could go well with a romantic movie, Ekk Deewana Tha is all that could go wrong in the same genre. (By the way, can someone care to explain this newfound fascination with Ekk?) Sachin (Prateik) is a 22-year-old wannabe filmmaker who promptly falls in love with Jessie (Amy Jackson), his landlord's daughter as soon as he spots her. And soon enough he has confessed his love to her. But she's not the one to melt too soon...full review

It remains a mystery how the turgid 2007 campfest Ghost Rider made $228 million worldwide, considering the movie's sophistry was on the level of a kid floating his plastic boat in a bathtub. But somehow people filled theatre seats and as a result we now have an even more horrid sequel slash reboot - Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. The new film, just like the first one wears its grindhouse crudeness as a badge of honour. There's plenty of bad dialogue...full review